Improvement in beer-faucets



UNrTnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

JOSEPH FIRMENIOH, OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BEER-FAUCETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 51,820, dated January 2, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, JOSEPH FIRMENICH, of the city of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Beer-Faucets; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of thisjspecification, in which- Figure 1 is a section, and Fig. 2 a section with the spigot in elevation, of a faucet with my improvement.

Like letters refer to corresponding parts in both of the'drawings.

It is the object of my invention to enliven (while in the act of drawing from the cask) beer, ale, or other liquors which have become old, and it consists in the application of an injector of simple construction to the faucet, by which a portion of the iiuid may be forcibly driven to the bottom of the vessel into which it is drawn without interfering with the action of the faucet, and also in making the handle of the injector the means of turning the spigot to open and close it.

As represented in the drawings, A is the barrel, and B the plug or spigot, of an ordinary wooden beer-faucet. A small tube, c, is provided, extending from the solid part of the plug B centrally through the discharge-chamber or bore f, and preferably a short distance below. Its size should not be such as to materially diminish the aperture of the spigot so as to obstruct the free passage of the liquor around it. The tube c is closed at its lower end, except a minute orifice at e. It is of equal internal diameter and provided with a rod, cl, closely fitted to work up and down, and having a knob, E, or other convenient appendage at the top. When pushed fully down it occupies all of the space in the tube c, excluding the air therefrom.

When the glass or other receiving-vessel be'- comes nearly filled with beer by drawing from this faucet the lower end of tube c is immersed in the liquid, and if the rod d be then drawn up the beer enters and fills the interior of the tube by atmospheric pressure. By pressing the rod d downward the beer in the tube c is forcibly ejected from it into the contents of the as often as necessary to produce the desired effect. The forcible injection of the contents of the tube in a small jet directed downward into the receiving-vessel agitates the beer and liberates the gas, causing it to effervesce like fresh beer, improving its appearance and liavor. In drawing new beer, which does not require this treatment, the rod d may be left down, filling the injector-tube, so that no beer can enter it, and the faucet operates equally well without it.

The rod d is. connected with the knob or hand-piece E by means of an intermediate con-l necting-piece consisting of a square shank, F. This shank is made of metal, and slides through a hole of like shape in the metal cap or plate g, which is screwed fast to the top of the spigot. By turning the handle E the spigot is also turned, and this forms acheap and convenient attachment for operating a Wooden spigot, while it at the same time serves the injector. It has been common to employ for this purpose a chamber or cylinder arranged within the faucet, which fills while the beer is being drawn, and is then forced out bya piston. This is liable to the objection that some of the beer is retained in the chamber or the working parts of the piston, and by remaining in contact with the metal of which those parts are necessarily made acquires a bad iiavor, and sometimes poisonous qualities, from the action of the acid thereon 5 while by my construction the small tube receives no beer except what `rises through its lower end, and this is all expelled by the first stroke of the follower, which iills the whole space within the tube. It, is therefore clean and wholesome, and cannot contaminate the beer.

The injector may be made of vulcanized india-rubber, or of any non-corrosive metal or glass, and is so inserted in the faucet that it is easily removable for the purpose of cleaning. One or more orifices may be used in the bottom for producing the discharge-jet, as may be deemed preferable. It is especially designed to be applied to wooden faucets, and produces, with triiing cost, a better revivifying beerfaucet than those that are constructed with a piston, chamber, and valves for receiving a portion of the fluid as it iiows through the faucet, and is preferable on account of excluding the beer when it is not required to be used.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In combination with the spigot of a beerfaueet, 'a central internal tube, c, closed, with the exception of one or more minute perforations at its lower extremity, and provided with a closely-fitting follower, d, having a square shank, F, and thus serving the double purpose of opening and closing the spigot and of operating the plunger, and so constructed that when the mouth of the spigot is inserted in the beer the raising of the follower will cause the tube to ll by atmospheric pressure, in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JOS. FIRMENICH. Witnesses:

J. FRASER, L. P. PERKINS. 

